1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to transportation systems in which passengers have separately handled baggage, and more particularly to a system for assuring that a passenger who checks luggage boards the transport.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Recent Federal Aviation Commission rules require that baggage not be transported on an airline flight unless the passenger who checked the baggage is enplaned on the same aircraft. The purpose of such regulation is to discourage terrorist attacks in which a person checks luggage having explosive materials, but does not board the aircraft. To require matching of luggage with passengers at the loading gate before loading of the luggage into the aircraft would result in extensive departure delays, and additional expense. Thus, there is a need for a fast, essentially foolproof method of matching passengers with stowed luggage which will assure that the passengers have boarded the aircraft without disturbing existing check-in and boarding procedures.
One approach to this problem is provided by Greenberg, U.S. Pat. No. 4,711,994 which utilizes the airplane ticket and luggage tag to provider matching. All tickets are preprinted with a machine readable unique number printed thereon. All baggage tags have a different unique number printed thereon. The tags and tickets are scanned at check in, and linked together by a computer. All passengers are boarded and the tickets surrendered. The ticket code for each passenger is then matched with the checked luggage of each passenger. Next, the baggage of all properly matched codes is then loaded in the cargo bay of the aircraft. This approach delays the aircraft departure after loading of passengers until the luggage has been loaded.